The Internet and World-Wide-Web have changed the way organizations conduct business. Virtually every organization has a web-site that provides information about the organization and a description of the goods and/or services an organization may offer. As is known in the art, a “web-site” is group of related mark-up language documents and associated graphics and multi-media files, scripts, and databases, etc. that are served up by a server on the World-Wide-Web via the Internet. Business organizations also provide an electronic commerce (e-commerce) interface that allows users to purchase goods and/or services from such organizations.
There are many different type of web-sites on a spectrum ranging from very simple to very complex. Designing, implementing and deploying a web-site requires knowledge of markup languages such as Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML), eXtensible Markup Language (XML), programming languages such as JAVA, C++, C#, computer graphics functionality, multi-media functionality, etc. A knowledge of communications protocols such as Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), Internet Protocol (IP), e-mail protocols such as Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), e-commerce protocols, encryption and other security protocols and many other types of protocols for various kinds of web functionalities.
With the proliferation of cell phones and other technology, the payphone and traditional telephone industry has seen a rapid decline in revenue including advertising revenues.
Commercial web-sites offer many different types of electronic advertisements. The advertisements typically include electronic links to advertiser's web-sites. There are many problems associated with designing, implementing and deploying advertising on a web-site.
Another problem is that many types of online advertising are considered spam. Another problem is that pop-up advertising is being block by operating systems such as Windows XP and add-on software. This pop-up blocking is becoming a standard feature in many operating systems. Another problem is that banner ads and pay-per-click ads are no longer an effective means of advertising online.
Electronic mail (e-mail) is one of the most common types of electronic information sent and received. E-mail is sent and received over public networks such as the Internet, and many private networks such as intranets, local area networks (LAN), etc.
Advertisers and other information providers are always looking for new ways to use existing technologies such as e-mail for advertising. There are many free e-mail services that routinely add advertising to user's e-mail as a condition of providing free e-mail. However, there is no easy way to add advertising to e-mail. In addition, general e-mail advertising is often considered spam.
One attempt to solve these problems is “Gmail.” provided by Google. Gmail includes a web-interface that displays e-mail. Electronic advertising is displayed on the web-interface that corresponds in part to content of the e-mail.
Another problem is that users change e-mail addresses frequently since there are many free and paid e-mail services available. There is huge number of e-mails sent to invalid or unavailable e-mail addresses.
There have been attempts to solve some of the problems associated with electronic advertising. U.S. Published Application No. 20020107730, entitled “Method and apparatus for identifying customers for delivery of promotional materials,” that was published by Bernstein discloses “a method and apparatus are provided for identifying potential customers for delivery of promotional materials. The method includes the steps of forming a customer profile by a vendor for targeting delivery of the promotional materials to potential customers, identifying customers which match the customer profile within a database of a third party and forwarding promotional materials to the identified customers.
For example, U.S. Published Patent Application No. 20030231754, entitled “Telephone call redirection system,” that was published by Stein et al. discloses “telephone call redirection system for misdialed telephone numbers is provided. When a caller physically and unintentionally dials one of a set of first numbers subscribed to by the system, the system recognizes the number intended by the caller, and provides the caller with the option of being redirected. If interested, the caller dials another number offered by the system to hear of the desired, intended number.”
U.S. Published Application No. 20030177063 entitled “Custom data ADS,” that was published by Currrans et al. discloses “aspects of the present invention provide methods, a computer system, a computer medium and an article of manufacture for generating personalized advertising to accompany information to be sent to a user. In one embodiment, the method includes the steps of maintaining, in memory, a plurality of user profiles and a plurality of images associated with each user profile and selecting an image associated with the user. Next, the image is inserted into advertising to provide personalized advertising.”
U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,407 that issued to He et al. entitled “System and method for selected audio response in a telecommunications network” teaches “a system and method for selected audio response to a telephone call that results in an unsuccessful connection. If a condition within the set of conditions is satisfied based on attributes associated with the caller or the telephone call, an action list associated with the satisfied condition is executed. The action list can comprise a selected audio response that is transmitted to the caller of the unsuccessful connection.”
However, none of these attempts solve all of the problems associated with electronic advertising. Thus, it is desirable to provide a method and system for improved advertising from network devices via cloud computing networks.